posted on January 6, 2006 02:33:10 PM new
Bush trumpets new economic numbers
Says economy heading into 2006 with 'full head of steam'
Bush declares economy strong
Jan. 6: President Bush says that "the American economy heads into 2006 with a full head of steam."
MSNBC
MSNBC TV
CHICAGO -
President Bush shrugged off a report showing weaker-than-expected job growth on Friday and declared that "the American economy heads into 2006 with a full head of steam."
SO nice to have a positive, encouraging, forward looking President - rather than one from the doom and gloom club
Bush rattled off a string of recent government reports suggesting a growing U.S. economy,
It appears to me it wasn't worth MSNBC taking the time to bother and mention them. Nope...but when it's bad news....they'll print each and every detail
and he used his speech to the Chicago Economic Club to prod Congress to extend his administration's tax cuts that are due to expire.
"In 2005, the American economy turned in a performance that is the envy of the industrialized world," Bush said.
Bush, who also visited the Chicago Board of Trade, spoke as he and leaders of his economic team fanned out to trumpet recent improvements in the economy despite Friday's mixed jobs report showing a slowdown in monthly hiring.
U.S. payrolls expanded by 108,000 jobs during December, about half of expectations. But hiring in November was revised sharply upward, to 305,000 new jobs instead of the earlier reported 215,000.
Still doing well
And the unemployment rate declined last month to 4.9 percent from 5.0 percent in November.
Can't ask for much better than that - in these times
By highlighting recent economic advances, Bush took an opportunity to turn attention away from the conflict in Iraq.
"By the way, we're going to win the war," he added as an aside.
He confronted Democratic critics and others who oppose extending tax cuts scheduled to expire in 2008, including lower rates on stock dividends and capital gains.
"Just as this economy is getting going, there are some in Washington who want to take the money out of your pockets," Bush said.
My guess would be the 'tax and spend' dems are behind this....going by their past MO
He said that to oppose extending the tax cuts was the same as "saying we're gong to raise taxes on you."
posted on January 6, 2006 03:03:50 PM new
The liberals will never see this cause there's no handout mentioned.
Amen,
Reverend Colin http://www.reverendcolin.com
posted on January 6, 2006 03:08:41 PM new
lol Colin.
Heck they won't even respond to ANYTHING that's improving or is good. It's like they just can't stand having to acknowledge that life for most American's isn't as BAD as they'd like voters to believe it is. Nor acknowledge how well our economy IS doing....especially with compared to Europe's. .....Europe being the one they'd so like to see America been more like.
posted on January 7, 2006 06:16:26 AM newBush basks in tax-cut credit
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 7, 2006
President Bush yesterday mocked Democrats who falsely predicted his tax cuts would ruin the economy and cited new job creation numbers as evidence that the cuts should be made permanent.
The message was also delivered by Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials who fanned out across the country in a coordinated effort to talk up the economy and claim credit for the expansion.
"The American economy heads into 2006 with a full head of steam," Mr. Bush told the Economic Club of Chicago. "By cutting taxes when we did, we've had the fastest-growing economy of any major industrialized nation."
To bolster his claim, the president cited the latest employment statistics.
"We got some new numbers today to show our economy added 108,000 jobs in December," he said, drawing applause. "The unemployment rate is down to 4.9 percent; Americans are going to work."
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, railed against what he called the president's "failed economic agenda that has left millions of American families with higher bills and lower wages to pay them."
Allan B. Hubbard, director of the president's National Economic Council, acknowledged that sluggish wage growth is "a big concern to the president."
"Compensation has continued to appreciate, but because of rising health care costs, a bigger portion of compensation increases have been going to support health care," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
"Secondly," he added, "it's the people with lower skills and less education who are not enjoying the wage appreciation like others. And that's why it's so important that we give everyone in America the opportunity to have an excellent education and to have job-training opportunities."
Although Mr. Bush thinks wages could be better, he touted a variety of rising economic indicators, including consumer confidence, home ownership, disposable income, durable-goods orders and shipments of manufactured goods.
The president also took the unusual step of resurrecting a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who predicted in May 2003 that the president's tax cuts would be cause economic disaster.
"She said, 'Today the Congress of the United States will vote on a reckless, irresponsible tax plan that will undermine opportunity in our country,' " Mr. Bush recalled. "Since that congresswoman had uttered those words, the economy has added more than 4.5 million new jobs."
The president's comments were echoed by Mr. Cheney, who ridiculed Democrats during a visit to a Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City, Mo.
"It's getting pretty hard for the critics to make the case that somehow these tax cuts weren't good for the economy," Mr. Cheney said. "The American economy is on the move, and that is because we did not listen to the pessimists."
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, scoffed at such criticism.
"The administration's constant response is to grant more tax breaks for the wealthy," he said. "Today's rosy remarks on the economy by President Bush and Vice President Cheney prove only that they're looking for good news with a microscope."
Mr. Kennedy predicted the economy would hurt the GOP in the midterm elections.
"It's obvious that at the start of this election year, the Bush economy is an albatross for the administration and Republicans in Congress," he said. "To paraphrase the famous saying, nothing concentrates the mind of a Republican Congress more than the knowledge that they're about to be hanged in November."
But Mr. Cheney was unapologetic about the administration's demands that the tax cuts be made permanent, even hinting that additional cuts might be needed.
"With the new year beginning, soon people will start receiving their W-2 forms in the mail," he said. "It's always a bit of a shock to see how big a piece the federal government took off the top of your earnings over the past year."
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posted on January 7, 2006 06:49:29 AM new
Who are you trying to convince ? Yourself????
Why are you still campaigning for bush?
Why would anyone IN THEIR RIGHT MIND believe anything bush and DICK cheney ever said?
How many lies and scandals and protected crooks and crimes will it take to change your mind about the Dictator bush?
Can you explain how giving huge tax breaks to the richest 1% of the people of this country has helped the economy ?
"""Secondly," he added, "it's the people with lower skills and less education who are not enjoying the wage appreciation like others. ""
Is that why his new "budget" plan increase the interest on student loans ???
Nevermind, I know none of my questions will be answered because there is no answer but I'm sure the insults which help NOT answer the questions will soon be forthcoming
posted on January 7, 2006 08:37:00 AM new
For anyone who's undecided about whether or not our Congress should/or should not make the tax laws permanent or let them expire AND what will happen should they be allowed to expire...please read this article.
posted on January 7, 2006 09:24:57 AM new
NEW TAX CUTS PRIMARILY BENEFITING MILLIONAIRES SLATED TO TAKE EFFECT IN JANUARY:
Should They be Implemented While Katrina Costs Mount?
By Robert Greenstein, Joel Friedman, and Isaac Shapiro
Budget Priorities After Hurricane Katrina
Federal Tax Policy
Even before Hurricane Katrina, large deficits were projected far into the future, with the nation’s debt burden ultimately swelling to unsustainable levels. The relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina is estimated to cost $100 billion to $200 billion, adding to the nation’s mounting debt. Debate has now begun about whether in the face of these costs and the grim long-term fiscal outlook, some belt-tightening and “shared sacrifice” are in order.
The budget reconciliation bills that Congress is slated to consider this fall will not help. Taken together, the two bills will increase deficits by more than $35 billion over five years. Under these bills, $35 billion in cuts in programs such as Medicaid and food stamps will be used not to reduce the deficit, but to offset a portion of the $70 billion that the reconciliation tax-cut bill will cost.
On September 16, President Bush said further budget cuts will be needed. The Administration presumably intends these cuts to come primarily in domestic programs. One obvious step, however, is being overlooked: Two tax cuts enacted in 2001 that are not yet in effect — and will only start taking effect on January 1 — could be reconsidered as a way of helping to defray some of the costs of Katrina relief and recovery. These two tax cuts will benefit only high-income households (primarily millionaires), will do little for the economy beyond further increasing the deficit, and were not even requested by President Bush in the first place. (They were added by Congress.)
The highly respected Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center reports that households with incomes of more than $1 million a year — the richest 0.2 percent of the U.S. population — already are receiving tax cuts averaging $103,000 this year, before these two new tax cuts take effect. The Tax Policy Center finds that the two tax-cut measures in question will give these “millionaires” nearly another $20,000 a year in tax cuts, when the measures are phased in fully.
This raises the question of whether the nation should proceed with these tax cuts at a time when many Katrina survivors remain in difficult straits, when huge sums are being discussed for Katrina relief and recovery, and when cuts in domestic programs — including programs for the poor — are slated for Congressional consideration this fall as part of the reconciliation bills.
President Clinton on the Today Show, September 16, 2005
Matt Lauer: What sacrifices would you ask the American people to make to pay those [hurricane relief and Iraq war] bills?
President Clinton: I would repeal the tax cuts for upper-income people. I myself have gotten 4 tax cuts while young Americans have gone off to risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, while we've had this massive natural disaster. We've run up this huge deficit. How are we covering this money? We are borrowing the money from China, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia to pay for the suffering of our people in the Gulf area, to pay for the Iraq War, and to cover my tax cuts — and we are expecting our children to pay the bill. We've made a decision to lower the living standards of our children and grandchildren and to soak other people around the world who don't have the money we do, by and large, to cover our self-indulgence.
The facts about these two tax cuts are as follows:
Under the tax code as it operates today, these are limits on the value of the personal exemptions and itemized deductions that people at high income levels can take. The two tax cuts scheduled to start taking effect in January would phase out these limits and repeal them entirely by 2010. (See the box on page 6 for a further description of the two tax-cut measures.)
President Bush did not ask for these tax cuts. Congress added them to the 2001 tax-cut bill, which was enacted at a time when policymakers assumed budget surpluses would surpass $5 trillion over the coming decade.
According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, a majority of the tax cuts from these two tax-cut measures — 54 percent of these tax cuts, to be precise — will go to the 0.2 percent of households that have annual incomes of more than $1 million a year. These households will receive added tax cuts averaging nearly $20,000 a year from these two tax-cut measures, when the measures are fully in effect.
Some 97 percent of the tax cuts from these two measures will go to the 3.7 percent of households that have incomes of over $200,000 a year.
Virtually none of the tax cuts from these measures will go to families in the middle of the income spectrum.
As noted, these tax cuts will phase in fully by 2010. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates they will reduce revenues by $9 billion in 2010, and by $16 billion in 2015. The ten-year cost of these provisions in the first ten years that they will be fully in effect (2010 through 2019[1]) will be $146 billion.[2] When the associated interest payments on the debt of $51 billion are added in, the cost rises to $197 billion over this ten-year period.
These estimates understate the cost of the two tax cuts. These estimates are based on Joint Tax Committee estimates that do not assume continuation of relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax. The Joint Tax estimates instead assume that a swelling AMT will cancel out a portion of these tax-cut benefits, reducing their costs. Virtually all observers expect, however, that AMT relief will be extended. With AMT relief in place, these tax cuts will cost significantly more than the amounts cited here.
Over time, the costs of these two tax cuts will exceed the costs of relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina (assuming that the tax cuts are extended beyond 2010, as the President has proposed).
posted on January 7, 2006 09:26:29 AM new
Health Care for the Poor Sacrificed for Tax Cuts for the Affluent
American Progress Action Fund
August 30, 2005
Congress must determine next week how to cut approximately $35 billion from mandatory spending programs through an annual process called budget reconciliation. The reason for the drastic slashing of critical social spending? President Bush’s massive tax cuts for the rich have failed to jumpstart our economy, and in turn, have produced record deficits that middle and working class Americans must now pay off. As vital programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, student loans, and other forms of government assistance sit on the chopping block, President Bush continues to push for permanent extension of his costly and inequitable tax cuts. The budget calls for $70 billion in additional tax cuts, and a pending repeal of the estate tax would cost about $750 billion over the first 10 years of enactment. What’s at stake?
$10 billion in health care spending for the poor could be sacrificed for the president’s tax cuts. As stipulated by the budget reconciliation instructions, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley will be forced to find as much as $10 billion in savings primarily by cutting Medicaid services. Because the Finance Committee is not required to cut one certain program to find the $10 billion in savings, it is possible that other entitlement programs under the committee's jurisdiction, such as Medicare and welfare programs, may also fall under the budget ax. States such as Michigan, which stands to lose approximately $300 million if the Medicaid cuts are enacted, are preparing to "turn away tens of thousands of its neediest citizens" or raise taxes or cut other vital state services, according to The Detroit News.
Student loans, food stamps and other social protections are also on the block. As America struggles to keep up with other nations in a rapidly changing global economy, Senate aides are currently crafting legislation to slash $7 billion from the student loan program. The most vulnerable Americans—the sick, poor and elderly—potentially face a $600 million cut in food stamps with other welfare programs also being evaluated for cuts.
America will not succeed economically unless it is willing to put the public interest above narrow individualism and greed. It is inexcusable to pursue fiscally irresponsible and self-interested tax cuts for the few above the needs of the larger public. Health care, education, and provisions for the vulnerable are not handouts or wasted money. They are necessary social investments that improve our economy and uphold our basic beliefs in justice and opportunity for all. Unfortunately, our nation’s right-wing leaders believe taking care of the wealthy will somehow take care of us all – a dubious calculation to make with America facing long term economic challenges at home and abroad.
